


il valentino

by crumbsfiction



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: F/M, it's the levihan valentines special!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-11
Updated: 2015-02-11
Packaged: 2018-03-11 22:41:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3335462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crumbsfiction/pseuds/crumbsfiction
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Having romantic relationships in the Scouting Legion is not advised.</p>
            </blockquote>





	il valentino

The first year she’s covered in grime and dirt, clothes ripped and bleeding scars still open. The bell signalling the closing of the gate is still chiming somewhere in the distance, heavy vibrations running through the earth and tickling the soles of her feet.

The afternoon is a flurry of unpacking and restocking, putting all the spare parts back in the places young recruits grabbed them from just two days earlier.

 _It feels like a lifetime_ , she thinks as she looks around at the familiar faces around her, fewer in number than she can stomach to think about.

Someone roughly pats her on the shoulder as they pass and she briefly recognizes their face from her training squad of last year, but she can’t quite attach a name to it. It’s a pity party for the miserable and heartbroken and all comfort is welcome by all people all of the time.

Later at night, curled into an old blanket full of holes on her bed, she watches Mike write a letter home in the light of a single candle, sign it in a swirl of ink - delicate for such large hands - and she asks him, “Why today?”

Her friend just shrugs. “Why not? They are people I love, the only ones I have,” he says, and that’s when she realises it’s Valentines Day.

So she thinks about pulling the finer stationary and ink from under her bunk, considers writing out, _Dear Mom and Dad,_ but she knows that everything escaping the nib of her pen would be covered in dirt and blood and she doesn’t want them to know. The glory part of her new job is widely known but the guts she’d rather keep to herself.

She blows out the candle and closes her eyes.

-

The second year there’s someone hiding in her peripheral vision, all raven hair and pale eyes. He’s been keeping to himself, more so than usual, but she thinks that the first expedition usually hits the hardest. People carry their grief and shock in different ways.

There are the rumours as well, following him around like an unshakeable shadow, but she’s not one to make quick judgements, so when she sees him crouched beneath the oak tree by the training grounds, she does the only reasonable thing.

“Hey, Levi,” she says. “Haven’t had a chance to talk to you lately. How’ve you been?”

He takes one look at her, tugs on the lapels of his jacket and says, simply, “Fine.”

(And she has to remind herself that he’s different, his upbringing was nothing like hers and that people have a tendency to bite the hand that tries to feed them.)

“Do you want to have lunch with me?” She asks, “Someone is bound to make a fool out of themselves trying to ask the new recruits out.”

Levi shrugs again.

They move towards the dining hall together and if Levi walks a little closer to her than usual, if the look in his eyes is one starved for human contact, _he’s been lonely ever since he got here,_ she doesn’t say a word.

Someone has decorated the hall with a few modest pennants, red and white in colour, and there are even a few dessert pies on a separate table with handwritten signs that read “Only one slice per soldier!! Thank you”.

“Wanna make a bet on how many slices we can grab before someone kicks us out?” she asks with a smirk and it’s the first time she’s seen Levi grin for months.

“You’re on.”

-

“What do you think about Valentines Day, Commander?” she asks, kicking her feet against the side of his desk like a kid.

“Valentines Day? It’s coming up, isn’t it…” Erwin answers absently, still writing out the budget propositions for the bimonthly review. He has a habit of tapping the cap of his pen against the desk when he thinks and it’s making an annoying repetitive sound, so she takes it from his hand and places it on the edge of the table.

“It’s in a week,” Hanji says. “We should do something nice for the soldiers, I think. Good for morale.”

“You’re right,” Erwin says, still absorbed in thought. “You have free reigns.”

“I wish you’d say that about my research, sir,” she says with a lopsided smile, and Erwin looks up then, locks his vibrant blue eyes on hers.

“You know I’m doing everything I can, Hanji.”

“Of course, sir. I didn’t mean anything by it.”

There’s a beat of silence. Erwin reaches to pick up the pen cap, starts tapping it against the wood once again.

“By the way, you never answered my question.”

“Hm?”

“What do you think of Valentines Day?” Hanji prompts. “Anyone special getting a card from the Commander himself this year?”

“Not this year, I’m afraid. I appreciate the holiday though. It’s a noble enough thought, appreciating the loved ones around you.” Erwin pauses, looks out the window. “Maybe I’ll send my mother a card. I think she’d like that.”

Hanji has figured out enough about his past to put one and one together, knits her brows together in sympathy.

“Yes, I think she would.”

And she thinks about how tenderly Mike was holding Nanaba’s hand this morning at breakfast, thinks about how Levi fixed her bangs for her yesterday when they were hanging over her glasses, about how the strangest people enter your life during the strangest of times and how they make permanent camp there, refusing to let go. 

“There’s no one else then?” she continues, knowing that she’s stepping out of line, but Erwin just smiles.

“I assume the appreciation for receiving cards of affection somewhat lessens when you’re married,” he says and Hanji thinks, _oh._

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.” 

“It’s fine,” Erwin says with a sigh. “Anyway, she’s safe now. That’s what matters.”

-

“Look at them,” Levi scoffs. “They’re ridiculous.” 

“You’re one to talk,” Hanji says, shoving his shoulder, her mouth still full of chocolate. He doesn’t budge, of course, but it’s the thought that counts. 

Aurou is practically tripping over his own feet trying to compliment Petra on the bright blue dress she got in town for her most recent paycheck, but the way he’s choking on his own tongue in the process, literally and figuratively, is almost painful to watch.

“Stop talking with your mouth full,” Levi says, grabbing the box from her hands. “I’m confiscating this.”

“I give them the rest of the day,” he continues, “then I’m locking them in a closet together until they work all this tension out. It’s messing with my sinuses.”

“Didn’t know you liked to play matchmaker,” Hanji says, yanking the box out of his hands, and Levi scowls. 

“I don’t. But this is something new. I can’t handle having this level of stupidity in my squad.” 

Hanji hums. “Won’t romantic feelings interfere with your work?” she asks, half serious, but Levi just snorts.

“You have experience with colleague fraternization, don’t you?”

Hanji smirks and picks another chocolate out of the box Levi handed her earlier the same morning, as he takes a sip of the new brand of black tea she prepared in his favourite cup.

“I guess you’re right.”

**Author's Note:**

> all i could think when i was writing this was "so many heterosexuals...."
> 
> anyway, hmu on tumblr at jsuya.tumblr.com!


End file.
